1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connector, and in particular, to a connector utilizing a static electricity draining mechanism to protect a memory card from being damaged by static electricity.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A Compact Flash (CF) card is one of the most popular flash memory cards, and has been used in personal digital assistants (PDA), printers, and digital cameras, among others. The compact and precise design of a CF card enables it to reach 1024 MB in memory capacity and to be read by a CF card reader. Each CF card reader is typically tested under the strike of static electricity at thousands of volts, which is called an xe2x80x9cElectrostatic Discharge (ESD) Testxe2x80x9d, so as to comply with the regulations of the European Committee or other countries.
A published patent (Taiwanese Application No. 529795) entitled xe2x80x9cConnector for Electronic Cardxe2x80x9d discloses a similar design to drain the static electricity caused by the human body, where a leading unit is attached to an isolated connector body. The leading unit has a grounding portion electrically connected with the ground of a PCB (printed circuit board), and a contact portion that penetrates into an insert portion of the connector. When a memory card fits into the insert portion of the connector, the contact portion will appropriately touch a metal plate of the memory card such that the static electricity will be drained to the ground of the PCB. The primary defect of this design is that it has an extremely complex structure for draining the static electricity to the ground. In addition, the complex design of the leading unit means that the connector is also provided with a complex structure. Thus, the cost of producing the connector is inevitably high. Furthermore, the leading unit has to be installed separately, which makes it more difficult and inconvenient to assemble the entire structure of the connector.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a connector that can effectively avoid damage by static electricity.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a connector that has a simple and inexpensive static electricity draining mechanism.
In order to accomplish the objects of the present invention, the present invention provides a memory card connector that is positioned on a printed circuit board (PCB) which is coupled to ground so as to receive and couple a memory card. The connector has a main body positioned on the PCB. The connector also has a cover removably attached to the main body to define a memory card receiving space between the PCB, the main body and the cover. The cover has at least one flexible extension extending into the receiving space, and a draining portion that is electrically coupled to the main body. The memory card is inserted into the receiving space so that the extension contacts a metal portion on the memory card, with the extension electrically coupled to ground via the draining portion and the main body. Thus, static electricity can be drained to ground via the extension, the draining portion and the main body.